Key stat reveals the depth of Oscar Piastri’s slump

Oscar Piastri found himself six tenths behind team-mate and title-rival at the Mexican Grand Prix qualifying and was unable to bridge the gap all weekend.

The Australian driver who had recently been leading the Drivers’ Championship now sits eleven points behind Norris.

Piastri was left bewildered at the Mexican Grand Prix when he finished six-tenths behind teammate and polesitter Norris and continued to remain way off the pace throughout the weekend.

Zak Brown and Oscar Piastri at COTA. Photo: RacePictures

Jolyon Palmer on the F1 Nation podcast claimed: “I do think it’s a struggle. I think when you’re six tenths away from your teammate in Mexico, it doesn’t matter where you’ve been the year before; that’s the biggest gap in the whole field in terms of a teammate comparison, and you’re the title rivals.

“Six-tenths in modern Formula 1 is a big gap. You’ve got Lando winning by 30 seconds, honestly cruising for a lot of the race, and Oscar, I know he got back to fifth, but think about the positions he gained.

“[Lewis] Hamilton got a penalty. That’s one extra position. [Kimi] Antonelli had a slow pit stop. That’s another extra position.

“And then he did an overtake on George Russell. It was a great overtake, I really enjoyed watching that one, but he still finished on merit behind Ollie Bearman.

“It’s a salvage, which is as good as you can get on a bad day, and you take the luck or you take the overtake, it doesn’t matter. The points are the points, but the performance will be a concern, I think, for him.”

Photo: Race Pictures

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella shut down speculation that a technical issue was to blame for Piastri’s struggles.

“Every evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measurement or information we have tells us that there is no problem with the car,” Stella said after qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. “We have no reason to suspect that’s the case.”

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